ISSUE TWENTY FOUR

Your logo hereMARKETINGADVISOR A great marketing campaign

is never out of fashion

• The best-dressed corporate brochure• Type that’s more than an accessory• Outerwear for paper

GRAPHICADVISOR

ISSUE TWENTY FOUR

Your logo here

• The best-dressed corporate brochure• Type that’s more than an accessory• Outerwear for paper

A great marketing campaign is never out of fashion

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Start with a strategy.

To update your corporate brochure, start

with a strategy. What is the purpose? Who

is your target audience? If you’re introducing

a prospect to your company, a corporate

brochure saves time that you might

otherwise spend reciting your corporate

history and mission. It is an ideal forum to

give readers a taste of the full spectrum of

your capabilities. Perhaps most importantly,

a corporate brochure lends credibility to your

organization. Anyone can print business

cards and letterhead with a minimal

investment, but a corporate brochure sends

the message that you are a “real” company

with a past, present and future.

Engage the reader right away.

If you don’t engage the reader right off the

bat, your brochure—and your investment

in design and printing—is going straight

into the trash bin. The cover is your first

opportunity to capture the reader’s interest.

Think beyond a picture of your product line

and a corporate logo. Grab attention with

an exciting photo or bold graphic, a splash

of unexpected color and a customized font.

Choose a unique size or shape of paper, a

substantial paper stock and a special finish.

Be conversational.

Inside the brochure, headlines and

subheadings should give even the casual

reader enough substance to understand

your broad message and pique interest in

the content that follows. Most marketers

write corporate brochures to inform and

instruct—much like a technical manual or

report. But wouldn’t it be more enjoyable

to read the latest bestseller? Lead with your

very best information, and let your story

unfold in a clear, natural, conversational

way. You can’t tell your readers everything

about your company in one brochure.

Selectively use factual information to make

your piece both interesting and believable.

Include a call to action.

You have drawn your customers in. You’ve

informed them about your company

and your products. Now what? There’s

only one correct ending. Include a call to

action. While selling is not the primary

purpose of a corporate brochure, why

miss the opportunity? Give the reader an

exclusive invitation, a free special report

or a perforated card to request more

information about your specific products

and services. Prominently display your

address, phone number, general e-mail

address and Web site on the back cover

to make contacting you easy. Continue

the conversation by directing the reader to

social media, like Twitter, Facebook or your

corporate blog.

Companies tend to limit distribution of

corporate brochures because of the cost

involved, but a well-designed, professionally

printed brochure can be worth a great

deal more than its cost. The real expense

comes from printing the first copy. You

can order thousands of additional copies

for comparatively little money. Get them

in the hands of your employees, vendors,

distributors, customers and

prospects and see

where the power of

an effective corporate

brochure takes you.

The Corporate Brochure Modern Make-Over

Critics say corporate brochures are glossy, brag-and-boast budget suckers that virtually no one reads. Under the old rules of corporate brochure

design, that was often true. Today, however, the corporate brochure has evolved from a stand-alone, one-way promotional piece into an integrated,

interactive conversation starter.

A well-dressedbrochure doesn’t haveto be a budget sucker.

It's easy to see how today's corporate brochure has evolved from expensive and showy to useful and integrated.

Closer to home, Highway Gothic, the

official font of the U.S. Federal Highway

Administration—it’s the typeface used on

highway signage—spawned the creation of

Interstate, which typographers modified to

use at smaller sizes, and perhaps in colors

other than white on green.

Some typefaces outlive the technology for

which typographers created them. People

who have never even seen a typewriter often

use Courier, designed for IBM typewriters.

It still evokes a “home made” feel, even

though few homes actually have typewriters.

CaslonSome typefaces catch on and become The

Beatles of typefaces. Caslon, a classic face if

ever there was one, first appeared in 1734

and was an immediate hit. The founding

fathers of the United States even used it for

the Declaration of Independence. (Imagine

how ineffective that document would have

been if it had been set in Comic Sans.) It’s

said that playwright George Bernard Shaw

insisted that all his plays be set in Caslon.

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You Know the TypeTHE RIGHT TYPE TREATMENT WILL HAvE YOU DRESSED FOR SUCCESS

In this age of

, , and other “system” fonts, it’s easy to take

type for granted. We’ve all seen documents that use more fonts per square inch than legibility, let

alone aesthetics, can handle, resulting in a garish “font-o-rama.”

What creators of these documents often neglect is a respect for type, and the understanding that good typography equals good communication. Gutenberg had it easy: he had only one font to choose from. Today, we have thousands upon thousands of typefaces. It’s an embarrassment of riches, and we’ve all seen embarrassing design.

Type Is Like Clothing

Type often obeys the law of engineering,

“form follows function.” That is, a typeface

should be appropriate to what the typesetter

designed it to do. At the same time, that form

needs to be aesthetically pleasing. The basis

of good typographic design is balancing the

“logistic” requirements of the document with

what is pleasing and attractive.

It’s like clothing. What we wear should

be appropriate to the weather as well as the

context (formal versus casual), but also be

attractive—or at the very least inconspicuous.

And just as with clothing, some fonts look

dated and scream “1970s!”—the typographic

equivalent of a plaid leisure suit.

Typefaces, like anything else, go in and

out of fashion. While it’s tempting to think

that no one really pays close attention to

fonts, there is often an unconscious visceral

reaction to type, not unlike the unconscious

reactions that we have to color combinations,

or, indeed, clothing. Understanding how font

choice affects the perception and reception

of a document is one of the crucial elements

to good design, and you should not treat it

lightly. Every font tells a story—is it the story

you and your client want to tell? Or do you

want people to say, “Your mother dresses

you funny”?

If we look at the history of typography,

typographers designed almost all of

the classic fonts for specific purposes.

venetian book printer, Aldus Manutius

invented italic type not because he

wanted to stress everything, but

because it was the best way to fit all of

a book’s text in a “pocket edition.”

The British newspaper The Times

commissioned the creation of Times

Roman after font designer Stanley

Morison had criticized the paper for its

poor typography.

Bell Gothic

AT&T designed a popular sans serif

face, Bell Gothic, in 1938 for its

telephone directories. Its goal? Legibility

and economy of page space, two vital

elements of a good phone book.

Frutiger

Charles de Gaulle International Airport

developed Frutiger, another popular

sans serif for airport signage. The goal

was for travelers to quickly and easily

read it from a distance.

The History of Type

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COATED PAPERSA N E x T R A L AY E R O F P I z A z z

Many different types of coated papers exist.

To make them, the paper mill starts with

an uncoated piece of paper and applies

different types of coatings to give the paper

different qualities. We call the uncoated

stock the base sheet. We refer to the

thinnest type of coating as a film or wash

coat, which acts as a sealer to prevent

ink absorption. The next step is a matte

coating. A matte coat has more clay than a

wash coat and is good for projects with a

lot of text. However, if your project involves

large areas of heavy, dark ink coverage,

matte coat papers can sometimes appear

somewhat mottled.

The next step is a dull, suede or velvet

coat. Like matte coatings, dull coatings

are good for text readability because

they are not as reflective as a gloss coat.

Glossy coatings actually have the same

amount of clay as a dull coat, but the mill

smooths and polishes the sheets using a

process called calendaring. They run the

paper between rollers, which compress

and smooth the paper. Glossy coatings are

great for color photographs, but the same

shiny qualities that make photos look great

can make text harder to read because of

the glare.

Gloss coated papers can be somewhat

less white than dull coated papers because

the heat required to polish the paper also

can add a slightly brownish cast. Coated

papers often include shades of white

named with terms, such as balanced, warm

and cold to indicate the hue. Cream and

other off-white tones are available, but

because we so often use coated stock for

showing off vibrant four-color printing, the

paper itself is rarely brightly colored.

As you can see, there are many

different kinds of coated paper stocks,

and each is suited to different tasks. It can

be overwhelming to tackle these choices

alone. Contact us early in the planning

stage of your next printing project, and

we’ll help you choose the best paper and

coating for your needs.

When you look through paper samples, one of the first things you probably notice is whether the sample is coated or uncoated. Coated papers feel smooth to the touch because they have a coating of clay and other substances. This coating causes the paper to reflect light more and absorb ink less than uncoated papers.

MARKETINGADVISOR

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MAILING INFO HERE

About This IssueAbout UsOne or two small paragraphs about

you and your company. One or two

small paragraphs about you and your

company. One or two small para-

graphs about you and your company.

One or two small paragraphs about

you and your company. One or two

small paragraphs about you and your

company. One or two small para-

graphs about you and your company.

One or two small paragraphs about

you and your company.

Programs used:InDesign CSIllustrator CSPhotoshop CS

Paper used:What paper did you use to print this issue?

Ink used:What kind of ink did you use to print this issue?

Coating used:What kind of coating did you use to print this issue?

Computers used:iMac G5

Press used:What kind of press did you use to print this issue?

Bindery used:What kind of bindery did you use to print this issue?

QR CODE FPONeed a QR code? Call Great Reach

Communications at 978-332-5555

GRAPHICADVISOR

Printer NamePhasellus porttitor elit

In hac habitasse plateaDonec tempor nonummy

MAILING INFO HERE

About This IssueAbout UsOne or two small paragraphs about

you and your company. One or two

small paragraphs about you and your

company. One or two small para-

graphs about you and your company.

One or two small paragraphs about

you and your company. One or two

small paragraphs about you and your

company. One or two small para-

graphs about you and your company.

One or two small paragraphs about

you and your company.

Programs used:InDesign CSIllustrator CSPhotoshop CS

Paper used:What paper did you use to print this issue?

Ink used:What kind of ink did you use to print this issue?

Coating used:What kind of coating did you use to print this issue?

Computers used:iMac G5

Press used:What kind of press did you use to print this issue?

Bindery used:What kind of bindery did you use to print this issue?

QR CODE FPONeed a QR code? Call Great Reach

Communications at 978-332-5555

Make the Most of What You Have

Every business has a database program so

make the most of yours. Even basic software,

like Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access

provides some data mining capabilities. Or

you might want to purchase add-on data

mining modules or third-party software. If

you have customer information in multiple

databases, you might also want to combine

them into a single, comprehensive database

for use in marketing. Even if you don’t, you

can often extract useful information from

even one or two databases.

Don’t overlook outsourcing. There are

plenty of companies that specialize in this

process. Many will use the moniker “business

intelligence” or ETL (extract, transform, load)

companies. Costs can be very reasonable, as

little as $100 or more per sort.

So get curious. Take a few hours to run a

variety of sorts just to see what you can find.

That curiosity could make a big difference to

the bottom line.

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Know what data is available.

Look for useful relationships.

Ask questions about that data.

1 2 3There are

three steps to data mining:

The first step is simply to understand the field

headings in your database. What data are

you capturing? Most databases have basic

information, like name, address and purchase

history. Are you also capturing information

such as age, gender and home ownership?

If so, this tells you the types of queries you

can run.

Running queries sounds complicated, but

it simply means asking questions of the data.

If you are a retailer, you might ask, “Which

customers purchased hardwood flooring last

month?” If you know that these customers

are also likely to purchase area rugs and floor

conditioning products, this gives you a

great start.

Look at Everything

The great thing about data mining is that

sorting is free. Run every sort you can think

of. Is there a relationship between hardwood

flooring and gender? How about income?

Look at everything. You might find

that data you once thought

irrelevant, such as the

date of purchase, has more

relevance than you think.

In order to produce a successful 1:1 printing campaign, all you have to have is a great database, right? Not quite. Producing a successful 1:1 print campaign starts with having a great database, but even once you have the data, you have to figure out what to do with it. Often, that means data mining.

Data mining. The very phrase strikes fear into the hearts of marketers. The ability to connect the dots to reveal buying habits and other customer behaviors is something many people see as complex, expensive and within the purvey of only the largest companies. In reality, data mining is well within the grasp of any sized marketer.

Finding the right data is easier than you think.

A NEW LOOK